Although alcohol may make people feel joyful, pleasant, and social for a short time, excessive or chronic, long-term drinking can develop into alcohol dependence or addiction, which is formally known as an alcohol use disorder. Chronic alcohol consumption has also been linked to various cognitive and mental health difficulties, such as learning and memory impairments, as well as worsening or creating major mental health disorders including sadness and anxiety.
Alcohol has an impact not only on the mind but also on the physical. Even moderate drinking seems to raise a person's overall risk of mortality for a variety of reasons, including some kinds of cancer and certain types of cardiovascular disease. This article will explain how alcohol affects your physical health and address a number of frequently asked concerns concerning alcohol's short- and long-term effects on the body.
Alcohol's Short-Term Effects on the Body
Your body responds in various ways when you consume even a modest quantity of alcohol:
- Alcohol alters mood, delays reflexes, and affects balance by slowing down the chemicals and routes your brain utilizes to manage your body. It may also cause issues with learning, memory, and sleep.
- Alcohol raises your heart rate and dilates your blood vessels, allowing more blood to flow to your skin (which makes you feel warm), but this heat escapes through your skin, causing your body temperature to drop once it has risen.
- Alcohol is initially broken down in the stomach, which stimulates the production of digestive juices. Alcohol also irritates the small intestine and colon, where it is broken down and absorbed, and it may slow down the usual passage of food through them, causing stomach discomfort, bloating, and diarrhea.
- Alcohol dehydrates the body, which may cause problems with the kidneys and the body's capacity to manage fluids and electrolytes. Hormones that control renal function are also disrupted.
- The liver, which filters circulating blood and eliminates and destroys harmful chemicals, including alcohol, is where most of it is processed. The liver can withstand a certain amount of alcohol, but it may become strained to the point of irreparable damage if a person continues to drink.
Binge drinking, or consuming a lot of alcohol in a short amount of time, puts your body and internal organs under a lot of stress (and can result in feeling a hangover following a drinking session). Headaches, severe dehydration, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and indigestion are all symptoms of excessive alcohol use.
Excessive drinking, even on a single occasion, raises the chance of negative cardiac consequences. These are some of the effects:
- Cardiomyopathy is a condition in which your heart muscle has difficulty pumping blood.
- An erratic heartbeat is known as arrhythmias.
- Blood pressure that is too high.
- Stroke.
Alcohol poisoning may also be caused by excessive alcohol consumption on a single occasion. This may happen when your body is overburdened by the quantity of alcohol you've consumed and is no longer able to metabolize it properly. Breathing rate, heart rate, and gag reflex may all be affected negatively. Severe alcohol poisoning might put you in a coma or possibly kill you.
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Traumatic Injuries and Alcohol
The effects of alcohol on cognitive and psychomotor performance might have potentially fatal physical repercussions. Alcohol may also weaken inhibitions, making you more prone to make impulsive, illogical, or reckless decisions that can lead to a loss of control, which can result in a variety of negative repercussions, such as aggression or accidents.
- Increased aggressive conduct, including murder and violence against intimate partners.
- Increased chance of harm, such as vehicle accidents or drowning by accident.
- Suicide risk exists.
- Risky sexual activities may lead to undesired pregnancies or the transmission of sexually transmitted illnesses.
The foregoing outcomes, in addition to posing a significant risk of harm, may also be fatal. About 60% of fatal burn injuries, drownings, and murders, 50% of severe trauma injuries and sexual assaults, and 40% of fatal motor vehicle collisions, suicides, and fatal falls include alcohol. Furthermore, the consequences of alcohol on a woman and her kid may be very severe and tragic during pregnancy.
